An Artist’s Interpretation Of How Iconic Faces Would Look If They Fit Modern Beauty Standards

Marilyn Monroe, 2018

Collage artist Mat Maitland, who’s famous for creating Michael Jackson’s posthumous Xscape album art, looked to Hollywood starlets of yore, and reimagined them using contemporary beauty ideals. He took late icons like Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor, and enlarged their lips as if they were a part of today’s Jenneration. The result is at once hilarious and unsettling, echoing an era when plastic surgery has become a casual lunch time hobby. But for Maitland, this isn’t a critique, but an observation on a phenomenon he finds deeply fascinating.

“Some people might look at this series and believe that I am making a hard commentary on cosmetic procedures. This isn’t the case at all,” Maitland told PAPER. “I’ve always been fascinated by people who push beauty to the extreme. One of my heroes, Michael Jackson, explored the idea of transformation early on in his career. Cosmetic approaches to beauty were previously restricted to celebrities and the mega wealthy but these have now become more attainable. Everywhere you look there is evidence of these contemporary ideals of beauty. You can observe the new normal across the world. This is what made me think about identity in our contemporary world. I started to imagine some of the most idolized stars embracing cosmetic procedures and trends if they were still alive today. Celebrities of the past altering their iconic looks to fit in with today’s more clone-like ideals.”